hiring that is concentrated, most recently in education and healthcare. a little bit of positive news coming from construction. but in a lot of the business services and goods-producing industries and manufacturing, things look pretty soft at this moment. >> reporter: in addition, 2,000 temporary jobs were cut, which is often looked at as a barameter of future employment. but, the average work week rose to 34-and a half hours... and employers typically boost the workload of existing staff.. before taking on new workers. with all these cross-currents, the employment situation may be but the bottom line seems to be that the economy is improving, but not nearly as quickly as most people would like. >> we lost so many jobs during the great recession, that we are slowly clawing our way out of that hole.. but still at a pretty slow pace." >> reporter: the government's next jobs report will come out just 4 days before the presidential election. by then, many voters will have made up their minds. so, the impact of today's data may be more political.. than economi